Tag Archives: earth shield

First, thank you to my guildmate Entropia, and RandyLite who reviewed this guide and taught me a couple new things about shaman.

Here are specific things to look for when analyzing resto shaman logs. It’s best to look at specific kills or attempts in order to get meaningful numbers.

Healing Done

Shaman are versatile healers who can do well at either tank or raid healing. They really excel on fights were people are grouped up and they can make the most of spells like Healing Rain and Chain Heal. Though Shaman do not have a huge assortment of spells to choose from, they have a number of buffs and cooldowns they need to manage throughout fights.

The main raid heals are Healing Rain, Chain Heal and Earthliving. The more grouped up the raid is, the stronger Healing Rain and Chain Heal will become. In 25-man raids on fights that require stacking up, these 3 spells can make up 60, 70, even 80% of the shaman’s total healing. Riptide will usually be next for healing done. If the raid is spread out, you will see more single target heals and Riptide will be higher.

In 10s, where tank vs. raid healing assignments are less stringent, shaman will likely cast a variety of both single-target and group healing spells. Because there are fewer people to stack up in 10s, Healing Rain and Chain Heal will not account for as much healing as they do on 25.

For any assignment you should also see healing from Earth Shield, though it’s unlikely to provide more than 10% of total healing.

Spells that may not account for much healing include:

Unleash Life: This is a small, instant heal which provides a buff for your next direct heal. How often it’s used is a matter of personal preference, but even if it’s cast often, it’s unlikely to make up more than a couple percent of overall healing. UL will likely be used more in 10s than 25s.

Healing Surge: With a high mana cost and output that was recently reduced Healing Surge is very inefficient. It can be used when a fast heal is really needed, but is unlikely to be a staple healing spell.

Notes on specific spells:

Earth Shield

Earth Shield should be up on a target all the time (more information in Buffs Cast section). The shaman’s direct heals are more effective on their Earth Shield target (due to Nature’s Blessing). When you click on Earth Shield, you should see the healing done to the Shaman’s main target.

Riptide

Riptide has a 6 second cooldown and should be cast as often as possible. Look at the number of direct heals from Riptide. You should see 9 or 10 direct heals from Riptide per minute of fighting. For example, on a 5-minute fight, you want to see close to 50 direct heals from Riptide. Uptime of the HoT is also important (more information in the Buffs Cast section).

Healing Stream Totem

Healing from this totem shows up on the Healing Done screen as a ‘pet’. Providing your raid has a non-resto shaman or a paladin for the mp5 buff, resto shaman should always be dropping Healing Stream Totem. The Active Time of the totem should be close to 100%.

Ancestral Awakening

This is an optional talent. Those shaman who do a lot of single target healing should have this in their spec. This only procs from direct heals, so raid healing shaman will get little extra healing from AA.

Buffs Cast

This screen will tell you how often a shaman is using their cooldowns, along with the uptime on key abilities.

Earth Shield – Earth Shield should be re-cast whenever it runs out and should have an uptime close to 100%.

Water Shield – Water Shield provides passive mana regen along with mana return when the shaman is hit by an attack or critically hits with a healing spell. This should be kept up as much as possible with an uptime above 90%.

Ancestral Fortitude – This talent reduces physical damage taken after being critically healed by the shaman. Since any heal will proc this effect (Healing Rain, Earthliving ticks) this should have a high uptime, around 90%. If the shaman is assigned to a specific target, you can look at that person’s Buffs Gained screen to see the uptime of Ancestral Fortitude on them specifically. Uptime on a single target will likely be less, around 50-60%.

Riptide – If the shaman is tank healing, Riptide should have an uptime close to 100% overall. You can look at the tank’s Buffs Gained screen to see the uptime of Riptide on them specifically. When raid healing, uptime will be slightly lower (Chain Heal will consume any existing Riptide HoT from its primary target) but should still be around 70% or higher.

Tidal Waves – Tidal Waves triggers when Riptide or Chain Heal is cast. Since Riptide should be cast on cooldown, you want to see Tidal Waves uptime be at least 65%.

Earthliving – Every heal has a chance to trigger Earthliving. The more multi-target spells used (Healing Rain, Chain Heal) the higher the uptime on Earthliving will be. This is not really something that can be controlled by the shaman. The only thing to look out for is that there is healing from Earthliving present. If it is absent, or extremely low, the shaman has likely forgotten their weapon enchant or it has run out in the middle of the fight.

Spiritwalker’s Grace – This spell allows the shaman to cast while moving for 15 seconds. It has a 2 minute cooldown, it should be used on every fight, and should be used often on movement-heavy fights. There are some exceptions, such as Alysrazor, where this is redundant.

Nature’s Swiftness – This spell makes your next healing spell an instant cast and has a 2-minute cooldown. If the shaman has this in their spec it should be used on every fight.

Focused Insight – This is an optional talent, which reduces the mana cost and increases the effectiveness of your next heal after casting any shock spell. Though there’s no target uptime or amount of times this should be used, if the shaman has specced into it, they should be using it at least a few times on every fight (the most optimal time to use it is before every Healing Rain cast).

Telluric Currents – This is an optional talent in the resto tree which causes Lightning Bolt casts to restore mana. If the shaman has this in their spec you should see mana gained from Telluric Currents under power gains.

Trinkets – If the shaman has any on-use trinkets, or useful racials they should be used as much as possible. Compare the cooldown to the amount of times used.

Other things to look for

A couple important abilities will not show up in Healing Done or Buffs Cast, so the Expression Editor comes in handy.

Mana Tide Totem – Mana Tide increases the spirit, and therefore mana regen, of anyone within range. It has a 3-minute cooldown. Shaman should be maximizing its use to provide as much regen to the raid as possible.

To see how often Mana Tide was dropped use the following query:

sourceName = “nameofshaman”
and (Spell = “Mana Tide Totem”)

Spirit Link Totem – SLT is the shaman’s 3-minute raid cooldown, it equalizes the health of anyone in range and reduces damage taken for the duration. Though its use will often be prescribed by the raid/healing lead, you can check to see how often it was used.

To see how often Spirit Link Totem was dropped, use the following query:

sourceName = “nameofshaman”
and (Spell = “Spirit Link Totem”)

Stoneclaw Totem – If the shaman has glyphed Stoneclaw Totem (which gives them a damage absorb shield), they should be using it when they are taking damage.

To see how often Stoneclaw Totem was dropped, use the following query: